The Malaysian Insider :: Features

Posted: 31 Jan 2013 03:57 AM PST

A study suggests that rising levels of obesity in young people could mean more MS diagnoses than in the past. — AFP pic

LOS ANGELES, Jan 31 — Obese children, adolescent girls in particular, are more likely to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) than normal-weight youth — with extreme obesity tied to a three- to four-fold higher risk of MS.

The study didn't prove that carrying around some extra eight in childhood causes MS, a neurological disease in which the protective coating around nerve fibers breaks down, slowing signals travelling between the brain and the body, said researchers whose work appeared in the journal Neurology.

But it does suggest that rising levels of obesity in young people could mean more MS diagnoses than in the past, according to lead study author Annette Langer-Gould from Kaiser Permanente of Southern California and her colleagues.

For the study, Langer-Gould and her colleagues compared the heights and weights of 75 young people with paediatric MS and its possible precursor, a condition called clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), and more than 900,000 without the disease.

"Our findings suggest the childhood obesity epidemic is likely to lead to increased morbidity from MS/CIS, particularly in adolescent girls," Langer-Gould and her colleagues wrote.

Just over half of the children and teens with MS were overweight or obese, compared to 37 per cent of other youth.

Being overweight or moderately obese was tied to a slightly higher chance of MS in adolescent girls, but the results were based on a small number of cases and could have been due to chance. Extreme obesity, on the other hand, was linked more clearly with a three- to four-fold higher risk of MS.

A 12-year-old girl who stands 1.52 metres (5 feet) tall and weighs 51 kilograms (112 pounds) is considered overweight and extremely obese at over 70 kg (155 pounds).

There was no clear pattern between boys' weights and how likely they were to be diagnosed with MS, Langer-Gould's team found.

"Obesity is increasing the risk of so many different kinds of diseases," said Kassandra Munger, who studies MS at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston but was not involved in the new study.

"This current study now adds to the evidence that it's also dangerous and increases the risk of neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis."

Roughly 400,000 people in the United States have MS, usually diagnosed in adulthood. Just one or two out of every 100,000 children is diagnosed with pediatric MS, Langer-Gould said.

Based on limited evidence about any effects of weight, she said she was "actually surprised" her team found any link with MS risk.

"It's not something we think of as a risk factor for multiple sclerosis," she told Reuters Health.

According to Munger, there are a number of possible explanations for why heavy people could be at increased risk, including their vitamin levels and the greater amounts of chemicals — such as inflammation-inducing signalling molecules — secreted by their fat cells.

"It's not easy to tease those out," Munger told Reuters Health. "From a biological perspective, we don't know what the link is between obesity and MS."

Langer-Gould and her colleagues are continuing to track children in their study over time and are also working on another project to see if adults' weight affects their chance of developing MS. — Reuters

Yoga may help people with irregular heart rhythms

Posted: 31 Jan 2013 03:05 AM PST

KANSAS CITY, Jan — The health benefits of yoga are said to be legion, everything from stress busting to lowering fat and stimulating the immune system. Now it may also help people with a common heart rhythm problem — at least, according to a US study.

A study finds that yoga may help people with irregular heart rhythms. — AFP pic

The American Heart Association says that about 2.7 million people in the United states have atrial fibrillation (AF), in which the heart's upper chambers quiver chaotically instead of contracting normally. It increases the risk of stroke.

Though people with AF are often prescribed drugs such as beta blockers to help control their heart rate and rhythm, the medicines don't work for everybody, said researchers whose findings appeared in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

That's where yoga could come in, said researchers led by Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, from the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.

"In patients with ... AF, yoga improves symptoms, arrhythmia burden, heart rate, blood pressure, anxiety and depression scores, and several domains of quality of life," they wrote.

The study included 49 people who'd had AF for an average of five years. For three months, the researchers tracked their heart symptoms, blood pressure and heart rate, as well as their anxiety, depression and general quality of life.

For the second phase of the study, the same participants went to group yoga classes at least twice a week for an additional three months, again reporting on their symptoms and quality of life. All of the patients were on stable medications throughout the study.

Nonetheless, the number of times they reported heart quivering — confirmed by a heart monitor — dropped from almost four times during the first three months to twice during the yoga intervention phase. Their average heart rate also fell from 67 beats per minute at the start to between 61 and 62 beats per minute post-yoga.

Participants' anxiety scores fell from an average of 34, on a scale of 20 to 80, to 25 after three months of yoga. Depression and general mental health improved as well.

"People feel more empowered, they feel better, they feel stronger," said W. Todd Cade, a physical therapy researcher from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who was not involved in the study.

Lakkireddy told Reuters Health that, for real help, yoga has to be incorporated into daily life, not just picked up for a few months at a time. Patients should also not expect a cure, but their arrhythmia may become "more tolerable," and emergency room visits due to symptom flareups may be reduced.

"A lot of people ask, 'Can I just do yoga and nothing else?'" Lakkireddy said. "I think that's the wrong approach to take. Yoga is not a cure in itself... it is a good adjunct to what else these patients should be doing."

Cade said future studies are needed to look at, among other things, whether yoga might help AF patients cut back on medication. Any possible benefits will also need to be confirmed — and better explained — in future research. — Reuters

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Khamis, 31 Januari 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Features

The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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